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THIRD 

ANHIVEKSAEY  ADDRESS 


BEFORE  THE 


B¥  JEHU  BIKER, 


“LIFE  IS  EARNES  T.” 


^^PRINTED  BY  M.  NIEDNER,^^ 

r?0.  75  CHESNUT  STREET,  4tII  FLOOH  WELD  BUILDING,  ST.  LOUIS. 


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The  following  Address  was  delivered  before  the  Platonian  lit- 
JISARY  SOCIETY)  on  its  third  Anniversary  occasion)  April Slst,  1852. 

At  a  subsequent  meeting  of  the  society  the  following  resolution  was 
unanimously  adopted. 

Resolved,  That  the  eloquent  address  delivered  by  Mr.  Daeer, 
at  the  last  Anniversary,  be  published. 


I 


YOUNG  GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  PLATONIAN  SOCIETY ; 


\ 


In  the  address  I  shall  now  deliver,  I  propose  to  remark  in  a 
very  general  and  discursive  way,  upon  the  great  matter  of  Human 
Life.  There  is  no  theme  that  lies  nearer  my  heart,  and  none  from 
which  I  could  so  confidently  hope  to  realize  some  small  fraction  of 
good . 

Human  happiness  depends  upon  the  just  harmony  of  all  the 
powers  of  our  being  within  itself,  and  with  the  various  objects  of 
the  surrounding  Universe.  Under  three  heads  may  be  ranked 
every  good  that  is  possible  to  us.  Looking  to  the  Almighty  Fa¬ 
ther  of  our  being,  we  discover  the  duties  of  religion  ;  the  obliga¬ 
tions  of  morality  depend  upon  our  relations  wdth  our  fellow- 
beings  ;  and  a  right  adaptation  of  our  faculties  to  the  material 
world,  is  highly  essential  to  our  principal  enjoyments. 

Here  w'^e  discover  the  natural  foundation  of  those  great  de¬ 
partments  of  human  thought — Theology,  Ethics,  and  Physical  Sci¬ 
ence  ;  and  these,  amplified  in  their  various  magnitude,  constitute 
nearly  the  sum  total  of  our  possible  attainment. 

Theology  will  embrace  that,  broad  domain  of  truth  which 
spreads  away  beyond  the  limits  of  time  and  this  world.  It  elevates 
~  the  mind  to  some  indistinct  conception  of  the  Almighty — it  is  in¬ 
terested  with  the  concerns  of  eternity,  and  deals  with  the  moment- 
C  ous  facts  of  Heaven  and  Hell. 

Ethics  is  a  term  that  carries  with  it  a  more  sublunary  sig- 
-'l^nificance.  It  ranges  over  that  region  of  our  being  which  lies  with- 
^in  the  sphere  of  our  intercommunion  in  the  atfairs  of  the  present 
life:  The  domestic  institution — the  thousand  relations  of  busi¬ 

ness — the  legislation  of  States  and  the  intercourse  of  nations,  are 
all  alike  subject  to  its  controlling  influence. 

Physical  Science  embraces  the  entire  material  fabric  of  crea- 
U  tion,  and  aims  to  make  it  subservient  to  human  uses.  We  here 
learn  the  elemental  constitution  of  the  material  world,  and  mount 
upward  through  the  boundless  solitudes  of  space  to  that  sublime 
C-  superstructure  of  worlds  which  surround  us. 


'  * 

(  J  '  I 


\ 


4  THIRD  ANNIVERSARY  ADDRESS 


Thus  vve  are  enveloped  in  an  infinite  sea  of  being — reacliing 
through  all  time  and  all  space — flowing  out  of  darkness  from  God, 
and  moving  on  with  sublime  grandeur  to  meet  the  awards  of  Eter- 
nity. 

Our  own  being  is  but  of  yesterd^'y.  The  busy  multitudes  of 
men  tliat  now  tread  the  earth,  may  be  compared  to  the  flowers  and 
the  green  foliage  of  a  summer’s  landscape.  Roru  of  the  breatli  of 
spring  as  she  advances  from  the  sunny  South,  they  rejoice  in  their 
short-lived  gayety,  until  the  frost  of  autumn  lays  them  cold  and 
dead  upon  the  freezing  earth.  Never  again  shall  they  bloom  while 
the  sun  holds  his  course  in  the  heavens — but  oft  as  the  seasons  re¬ 
turn,  another  garnishment  as  beautiful  as  they,  shall  decorate  the 
scene  where  they  flourished.  So  with  the  generations  of  men. 
Coming  forth  from  tlie  shades  of  the  deep  and  unseen  world,  they 
figure  for  a  little  season  upon  the  stage  of  life,  and  then  embark 
upon  that  silent  sea  of  death,  where  no  sound  of  the  boatmen  is 
ever  heard,  or  tidings  borne  back  of  the  countless  millions  that 
have  sailed  out  upon  the  dark  and  long  voyage. 

To  any  one  who  will  think  considerately,  such  reflections  must 
brincr  a  feelins:  of  solemn  seriousness.  Looking  tliiis  backward 
and  forward  over  the  whole  area  of  our  mortal  li  e,  we  see  the 
diminutive  span  of  our  utmost  reach,  and  feel  how  like  we  are  to 
the  summer  insect  that  dies  with  the  day  that  gives  it  birth. 

The  very  place  where  I  now  stand — this  plain  old  College 
building — those  trees  that  wave  over  these  beautiful  grounds — 
those  walks  and  rural  cottages,  are  all  alive  wilh  associations  that 
can  never  fade  from  mv  heart,  and  which  at  tlie  same  time  arc 
calculated  to  sustain  that  earnest  impression  of  life  which  I  am 
presenting. 

Years  freighted  wilh  disappointment  and  care  have  flown  by, 
since  with  a  liigh  beating  heart  I  bade  farewell  to  these  College 
scenes  ;  and  now,  when  I  revert  again  to  the  days  th.it  can  never 
return — and  pass  in  review  the  dim  shades  of  those  glorious  hopes 
that  liere  loomed  up  in  my  bosom — and  call  back  Irom  the  cold 
<rrave  the  familar  forms  of  those  that  I  here  loved,  it  seems  to  me 
that  I  am  standing  ratlicr  among  the  tombs  ot  the  dead,  than  en¬ 
gaged  in  the  work  of  a  literary  entertainment. 

It  is  «ad  to  think  of  the  changes  that  time  has  wrought — of 
tlie  proud  hopes  humbled  in  the  dust — of  the  hearts  that  have 
sunk  lown  in  despair  upon  the  journey  of  life, — it  is  sad  to  thiiik 
of  the  brilliant  premise  and  the  mournful  consummation.  Yet  ev- 


OF  THE  PLATON.  LIT.  SOCIETY 


erything  that  I  here  see,  carries  my  mind  back  through  the  sha¬ 
dows  o!  the  past,  and  rouses  some  spectre  of  ruined  anticipation. 
How  many  that  have  gone  hence,  wrapped  in  visions  of  glorious 
success,  are  now  sprawled,  lamed  and  lost  in  the  sloughs  of  this 
lower  world  !  How  many  are  becalmed  on  the  sea  oi' life — with 
no  hope  to  quicken  their  hearts,  and  no  breeze  to  bear  them  on 
through  the  solitudes  of  ennui  and  despondence  !  How  many  have 
closed  their  eyes  upon  these  bright  heavens,  and  laid  down  amid 
the  noisome  vapors  of  the  “dark  and  narrow'  house!” 

I  think  of  one,  whose  eye  was  instinct  with  the  fire  of  genius, 
whose  heart  was  the  throne  of  honor,  and  wdio  w'ent  forth  from 
these  scenes  breathing  the  aspirations  of  a  liigli  and  confident  am¬ 
bition.  He  wmn  the  first  honors  of  a  celebrated  professional 
school.  He  sow^ed  the  seed,  but  death  rept  the  h  irvest.  Plis 
humble  grave  now  kisses  the  sunbeams  that  warm  the  green  hills 
of  Kentucky. 

And  I  think  of  another,  whose  lamb-like  gentleness  of  temper 
and  fine  strung  intellect  made  him  an  object  of  universal  admira¬ 
tion  and  love  among  his  Ccdlege  associates.  In  a  grove  just  a  little 
way  to  the  South  of  this,  I  heard  his  valedictory  address.  It  w'as 
a  beautiful  summer’s  evening,  and  I  can  well  remember  the  tears 
that  trickled  down  the  cheeks  of  his  class-mates  and  preceplors, 
as  he  dw^elt  in  terms  of  moving  eloquence  upon  the  sad  ravages 
that  time  wmuld  make  in  their  number.  He  said  that  those  of  them 
W'ho  died  first,  should  yet  live  in  the  hearts  of  their  surviving 
friends,  and  that  as  the  seasons  returned,  their  lonely  graves 
should  be  decorated  with  the  choicest  floral  offerings.  I  was 
touched  w'ith  the  sentiment  at  the  time,  and  it  is  one  which  I  have 
always  loved  to  cherish.  There  is  nothing  more  beautiful  in  our 
nature,  and  hardly  anything  more  divine,  than  that  feeling  of  de¬ 
voted  and ’undying  love,  which  follows  its  object  through  the  sha¬ 
dows  of  death  to  the  abodes  of  the  spirit  w'orld.  It  shows  that  our 
affections  are  eternal,  and  points  to  a  re-union  of  hearts  in  that  land, 
where  no  clouds  of  sorrow  shall  darken  the  golden  fields  of  light. 
There  is  joy  in  the  communion  of  hearts  that  love,  and  there  is 
grief  w'hen  such  hearts  must  bid  adieu  until  the  morning  of  the  Re¬ 
surrection.  Rut  the  fires  of  hojre  still  burn  among  the  ashes  of  the 
dead,  and  the  affections  of  nature  will  not  suffer  them  to  leave  our 
bosoms.  We  delight  to  look  again  and  again  upon  the  little  me¬ 
mentoes  of  their  love — to  press  their  pictures  to  our  lips  and  (Uir 
hearts — to  visit  their  graves  long  years  alter  they  have  died,  and 


THIRD  ANNIVERSARY  ADDRESS 


weave  festoons  of  flowers  for  them  in  the  early  spring.  But  I 
find  I  am  yielding  myself  to  the  direction  of  a  favorite  feeling.  I 
was  going  to  say  that  that  young  speaker  himself  was  the  first 
that  fell  by  the  hand  of  the  destroyer.  He  sleeps  the  sleep  of 
death  in  the  old  graveyard  of  Lebanon. — I  need  ofier  no  apology 
for  this  tribute  to  the  memory  of  those  dead  who  once  trod  the 
paths  of  learning  in  this  same  Institution ;  for  I  know,  that  if  any 
of  you  were  assured  of  a  like  untimely  end,  it  ^would  be  a 
pleasant  reflection  to  think  that  you  would  not  be  entirely  forgot¬ 
ten  by  your  companions,  as  soon  as  the  clods  of  the  valley  dried 
over  your  graves.  But  it  was  my  design  to  infer  a  lesson  of  humil¬ 
ity  and  earnestness  from  these  melancholy  reminiscences  of  the  past. 
They  show  how  vain  are  the  glory  and  ambition  of  human  life,  and 
carry  with  impressive  emphasis  to  our  minds  that  weighty  precept 
of  inspired  wisdom,  “work  while  it  is  called  to-day,  for  the  night 
cometh  wherein  no  man  can  work.” 

And  if  we  enlarge  the  sphere  of  our  reflections,  and  take  in 
the  whole  range  of  our  observation  and  experience  through  life,  we 
shall  find  an  additional  confirmation  of  the  emptiness  of  human 
pride,  and  of  the  evanescent  glare  of  this  world’s  choicest  hopes. 
How  like  the  tomb-stones  that  whiten  the  distant  hills  in  some 
lonely  solitude  of  nature,  are  the  memories  of  those  bright  and 
happy  days,  when  heaven  and  earth,  and  all  things  beneath  the  cir¬ 
cle  of  the  sun,  glowed  with  the  effulgence  of  truth  and  love  and 
purity !  And  how  like  the  shades  of  night  that  rest  upon  the  con¬ 
fines  of  the  infernal  world,  are  those  clouds  of  grief — dark,  por¬ 
tentous,  wild  and  deep — that  gather  round  the  heart  as  this  scene 
of  fantasy  disappeais  !  There  is  a  period  in  the  spring-time  of  life 
when  this  world  is  fair  and  beautiful  as  the  garden  of  Paradise  be¬ 
fore  the  breath  of  hell  blasted  its  flowers.  The  young  human 
heart  bears  within  itself  a  creative  power — bringing  light  out  of 
darkness,  and  clothing  the  arid  wastes  of  Real  Life  with  the  groves 
and  birds  of  gorgeous  plumage,  the  enchanted  springs  and  sweet¬ 
smelling  spices  which  Oriental  imagination  referred  to  the  region 
of  Happy  Arabia.  But  such  creations  cannot  endure.  They  fade 
like  flowers  in  a  solitary  place,  and  their  withered  leaves  are 
scattered  by  the  winds  of  the  desert. 

— “Tears,  idle  tears — I  know  not  w’hat  they  mean, 

Rise  in  my  heart  and  gather  in  my  eyes, 

In  looking  over  the  happy  autumn  fields. 

And  thinking  of  the  days  that  are  no  more.^’ 


OF  THE  PLATON.  LIT.  SOCIETY.  ^ 


Strange  that  the  Poet  knew  not  the  meaning  of  those  tears. 
They  are  the  sobs  of  the  child  that  is  torn  from  the  bosom  of  its 
mother, — they  are  the  wail  of  the  broken-hearted  maiden,  as  she 
strays  “by  the  silver-light  of  the  moon”  and  weeps  for  the  ruin  of 
betrayed  and  abandoned  innocence, — they  are  the  sigh  of  the  exil¬ 
ed  patriot,  who  from  some  lonely  coast  or  isle  of  the  sea,  looks 
over  the  stormy  deep  toward  that  loved  and  far-off  home  to  which 
he  shall  never  return, — they  are  the  voice  of  Nature  in  the  uni¬ 
versal  human  heart — ceaseless  as  the  ocean’s  moan — earnest,  si¬ 
lent,  deep  as  the  fountains  of  life. 

Nor  need  it  be  said  that  this  view  of  our  condition  is  at  all 
exaggerated.  “No  man  can  look  upon  the  world  and  be  glad.” 
Think  of  the  wild  waste  of  the  historical  ages — of  the  seas  of  blood, 
crime  and  woe  that  have  deluged  this  earth  to  the  mountain  tops  ; 
— think  of  the  monster  vices  that  are  laying  waste  the  harvest  of 
life  and  “putting  rout  among  the  nations” — of  those  starving  gar¬ 
rets  and  chilling  cellars — those  underground-hells  and  maelstroms 
of  death  and  sin  ; — think  of  those  thousands  of  wretched  men — 
with  cadaverous  visages  and  stooped  shoulders — breath  noisome 
as  the  vapors  of  the  tomb — straw  hats  and  linen  pants  in  the  dead 
of  winter — swaggering,  reeling,  tottering  down  to  a  despised  and 
neglected  grave,  where  no  stone  shall  mark  the  spot,  and  no  kind 
remembering  tear  of  love  shall  ever  be  shed  ; — think  of  those  thou¬ 
sands  of  lovely  women,  snared  in  the  gins  of  temptation,  and  sent 
forth  to  wander  among  the  bleak  hills  of  mockery  and  scorn — with 
the  curse  of  the  world  upon  their  hearts,  and  no  relief  but  to  cry 
to  the  bending  heavens  for  that  sympathy  which  is  so  dear  to  the 
human  bosom  ; — think  of  those  troops  of  gilded  villains — dazzling 
as  the  basilisk — deadly  as  the  upas-tree — loathesome  as  the  infer¬ 
nal  sorceress  of  Milton — dark,  deep,  foul  and  damnable  beyond 
all  power  of  conception — with  hearts  set  on  fire  of  hell — shedding 
pestilence  in  their  track,  and  blasting  every  flower  of  innocence 
within  the  range  of  their  destroying  visitations ; — think  of  that 
stertorous  groan  that  ascends  from  the  great  deep  of  the  world’s 
heart — of  those  tears  of  grief  that  can  never  be  assuaged — of  those 
burning  winds  of  remorse — sweeping  over  the  troubled  bosom  of 
guilt— scorching  every  green  place  and  drying  up  the  warm  blood 
of  life.  The  man  who  will  look  upon  such  scenes  with  the  com¬ 
placent  smile  of  indifference  is  deficient  in  heart — and  he  that  ex¬ 
ults  in  the  sad  destinction  of  the  “laughing  philosopher”  is  hardly 
a  more  reasonable  being  than  the  wretch  who  can  mock  the  mur- 


THIRD  ANNIVERSARY  ADDRESS 


dered  dead,  or  dance  in  bacchanalian  riot  over  a  mother’s  grave. 
“But  as  yet  struggles  the  twelfth  hour  of  the  night.  Birds  of 
darkness  are  on  the  wing.  Spectres  uproar.  The  living  dream. 
The  dead  walk.  Thou,  Eternal  Providence,  wilt  make  the  day 
dawn !” 

But  I  need  not  resort  to  the  arts  of  description  in  order  to 
sustain  the  view  that  I  am  maintaining.  We  have  the  authority 
of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Apostles — of  the  Prophets  of  Israel — of 
the  Sages  and  Heroes  of  Virtue  in  all  ages  of  the  world.  They 
have  all  represented  man  as  reaching  to  heaven  by  some  attributes 
of  iiis  nature,  and  sinking  to  the  shades  of  perdition  by  others, — 
and  they  have  represented  human  life  as  a  dismal  scene  of  conflict 
between  these  opposing  elements  of  the  human  heart.  They  have 
represented  our  world  as  a  grand  theatre  of  disputed  possession — 
as  a  wild  province  redeemed  from  chaos — lying  far  remote  from 
either  extreme,  where  day  mingles  with  night,  and  the  Truth  of 
God  contends  with  “the  power  of  the  Spirit  of  the  air.”  And 
they  have  nobly  lived  and  died  in  the  service  of  that  Truth.  Poor 
in  the  goods  of  this  world — ^despised,  scorned,  and  rejected — 
driven  to  the  wilderness  and  desert — the  racks  and  dens  and  caves 
of  the  whole  earth  can  testify  of  them.  Yet  they  departed  not 
from  the  work  which  God  had  put  in  their  hearts, — but  with  night¬ 
long  vigils — with  fasting,  prayer,  and  mighty  yearnings  of  spirit, 
they  have  kept  alive  some  sparks  of  that  Promethean  lire,  without 
which  this  world  would  be  dark  as  the  dungeons  of  the  dead. — That 
Seer  of  Patmos— that  John  with  his  raiment  of  Camel's  hair— that  So¬ 
crates  in  the  market  place  of  Athens — that  Epictetus  with  his  iron 
lamp — those  saints  and  martyrs  of  the  early  Church — those  heroic 
dei'enders  of  the  Truth  in  every  age  and  country  of  the  .world — 
these  are  they  who  have  made  the  earth  wholesome  with  their  toil 
and  blood — and  these  are  they  who  should  attend  the  souls  of  liv¬ 
ing  men  ! 

Where  are  the  gormand  idols  of  our  poor  sad  world  when 
brought  into  company  like  this  ?  Where  are  those  bloody  con¬ 
querors  that  the  school  boy  is  first  taught  to  swell  at  the  thought 
of?  Where  are  those  merchant  princes,  covered  all  over  with 
the  tinsel  of  the  worm,  and  carrying  whole  armies  of  todies  in 
their  train  ?  Where  are  those  grovelling  poets  and  novel  mon¬ 
gers — so  loved  and  mighty  in  this  great  century  of  progress — By¬ 
ron,  Sue,  Bulwer,  Paul  de  Kock  and  a  host  of  fouler  name,  fish¬ 
ing  in  Ihe  purlieus  of  death  and  sin  for  the  current  staple  of  popular 


OF  THE  PLATON.  LIT.  SOCIETY. 


®) 

consumption  ?  Where  are  those  leaden-hearted  philosophers — 
Hobbs,  Hume,  Gibbon,  Voltaire  and  such — perched  like  owls  in 
darkness  and  holding  discourse  of  day  ?  Where  are  your  singing 
Jennys,  and  dancing  Elslers  and  model  Artists — than  whom  there 
is  no  greater  God  among  all  the  dark  minded  worshippers  of  Flun- 
kydom  ?  Where  are  your  swarms  of  crack  stump  orators,  bel¬ 
lowing  out  their  vapid  balderdash  of  speech — your  mustachioed 
libertine  patriots,  swviggering  in  all  saloons,  cursing  the  highest 
Truth,  and  swaaring  on  the  altar  of  liberty  ?  Where  are  your 
party  editors  and  brawling  politicans — harnessed  like  beasts  of  the 
field  and  dancing  like  puppets  at  the  bidding:  of  a  master  ?  Where 
are  your  renowned  and  overshadowing  statesmen,  sowing  for  their 
harvest  in  the  sloughs  of  human  depravity — grinding  like  Sampson 
in  the  mill  of  the  Philistines,  and  blind  as  he  ?  Where  is  your  gilt 
and  powdered  hypocrisy — roosting  upon  its  velvet  cushioned  pews 
among  the  great  black  walls  of  those  mighty  cities  ?  Where  are 
your  inexorable  money  grubbers — true  to  the  instincts  of  a  swin¬ 
ish  greed,  and  getting  the  heart’s  worship  of  those  gaping  bipeds 
calling  themselves  men  ? — none  the  less  as  God  lives,  tho’  remorse¬ 
less  avarice  coin  its  gajns  from  the  blood  and  tears  of  palefaced 
consurnpted  women,  quartered  in  squalid  sheds  and  making  shirts 
at  five  cents  a  piece. — Where  are  your  gloating  demons  of  lust — 
todied  in  polite  circles,  and  leering  with  fiendish  eye  upon  the 
garden  of  beauty  ?  Where  is  that  hellish  moloch  of  public  opin¬ 
ion,  \enting  fire  upon  the  poor,  trembling,  friendless  vidim^ 
and  showering  choicest  honors  on  the  vidimizer  ?  Where  are 
cr// those  thousands  humbugs  and  atrocious  damning  heresies,  ab¬ 
sorbing  the  heart  of  the  world,  and  choking  out  the  light  of  Heaven? 
See  them,  as  they  lord  it  over  the  entire  earth,  darkening  the  sun 
with  the  filthiness  of  their  abominations  !  See  them,  and  know 
that  their  ultimate  value  under  heaven  is  this — that  they  are  mere 
vulture’s  meat — floating  masses  of  putridity  upon  the  bosom  of  the 
world — to  be  devoured  at  last  by  the  avenging  fires  of  wrath. 
Yea,  sure  as  there  is  a  God  of  Power  and  Justice  in  the  universe, 
every  foul  and  false  and  wicked  thing,  tlio’  lifted  to  the  very 
heavens,  and  filling  the  heavens  with  its  greatness,  and  cheered 
by  the  millions  of  all  centuries — shall  come  down  from  its  proud 
height  in  the  fulness  of  time,  and  sink  to  that  bottom  where  it 
shall  never  again  curse  the  light  of  day  ! 

But  as  yet  it  is  “neither  sea  nor  good  dry  land,”  and  ages  unnum¬ 
bered  shall  pass  away  before  that  resplendent  Order,  radiant  with 


1® 


THIRD  ANNIVERSARY  ADDRESS 


the  beauty  of  God,  sliall  arise  out  of  the  fiercely  combatting  ele¬ 
ments  and  storms  of  whirlwind  that  now  shake  the  foundations 
of  the  world.  The  warrior  will  not  repose  upon  his  laurels  until 
the  victory  is  won  ; — and  now  that  the  evil  days  have  not  finished 
their  course,  and  the  dragons  of  iniquity  are  abroad  in  the  earth, 
crushing  out  the  eternal  happiness  of  men,  it  is  the  part  of  an  im¬ 
mortal  soul  to  rise  in  stern  war  against  those  infernal  destroyers, 
and  never  to  bow  down  before  them,  tho’  mocked  and  cursed,  and 
burnt  to  ashes  in  the  fires  of  the  contest.  Protean-shaped,  vora¬ 
cious  as  death,  terrible  as  the  beast  of  the  vision,  wearing  ten 
thousand  seducing  forms,  with  deep  lodgment  in  nearly  all  hearts, 
they  are  to  be  met  in  every  high  place  and  low  place,  and  nook 
and  corner  and  hole  of  the  world, — and  wherever  met,  they  are 
found  gnawing  at  the  vitals  of  life,  or  sitting  with  vampire  weight 
upon  the  struggling  souls  of  men.  Arm  !  arm  for  that  high  ren¬ 
counter  which  places  all  others  in  shaded  insignificance — with  a 
brave  heart  and  the  good  sword  of  eternal  truth — attended  by  that 
seven  thousand  who  have  never  bowed  their  knees  to  Baal,  and 
by  the  shades  of  those  immortal  dead  who  have  fought  well  the 
battle  of  life — strike,  and  stand,  and  strike-  until  you  have  victory 
or  death ! 

O  !  is  it  the  hallucination  of  a  distempered  fancy  ?  the  morbid 
dream  of  fevered  sensibility? — Nay,  by  the  light  of  heaven  and  the 
glorious  ages  above,  it  is  that  the  men  of  this  world  have  groped 
in  black  night  until  darkness  has  become  their  element.  That  wide 
expanse  of  spiritualism — that  boundless  sea  of  happiness  which  is 
possible  to  the  human  soul — those  lofty  and  enrapturing  forms  of 
beauty,  floating  with  angelic  loveliness  thro’  our  minds  when  we 
feel  the  spirit  of  the  stars  in  our  bosoms — that  mournful  grandeur 
of  life  and  death,  coming  to  us  from  the  sighing  woods  and  silent 
fields — those  long  periods  of  eternal  duration,  where  floods  of  joy 
gild  the  smiling  hills  of  immortality — reflect  from  the  great  heights 
of  our  being,  a  light  that  flares  over  the  lorn  wilds  of  this  deep 
sunken  world!  Yea,  the  very  heavens  do  testify,  and  nature 
speaks  through  all  her  murmuring  seas  and  forests.  From  the 
other  side  of  that  gulph  where  other  spheres  sound  the  march  of 
time  and  other  suns  blaze  in  their  central  orbs — from  all  the  tongues 
of  inspired  and  mighty  men  of  virtue  in  all  time — from  the  raging 
fires  of  anguish  that  burn  and  ever  burn  in  our  own  hearts — there 
comes  a  voice,  proclaiming  in  terras  not  to  be  mistaken,  that  the 


OF  THE  PLATON.  LIT.  SOCIETY. 


HH 

mildew  of  death  and  hell  has  settled  upon  our  globe,  and  that  human 
life  in  this  world  in  one  of  terrific  earnestness  ! 

But  I  could  never  reach  the  just  altitude  of  my  argument  with¬ 
out  reference  to  that  sublime  Teacher  whose  spirit  is  abroad  upon 
the  troubled  waters  of  humpn  life.  Without  trending  upon  the  confi¬ 
nes  of  exact  Divinity,  there  is  a  lower  and  critical  view  which  must 
meet  with  universal  approbation.  It  is  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is 
the  collossal  figure  of  all  history,  looming  up  like  a  mountain  of 
light  between  the  dark  centuries  of  Paganism  which  had  gone 
before,  and  the  ages  of  strife,  sin  and  suffering  which  followed 
after  and  are  yet  to  come.  No  historical  fact  that  carries  an  im¬ 
portance  so  immense,  as  the  life  of  that  young  Being,  who  from 
the  rocky  shores  of  Palestine,  and  in  a  remote  and  dark  age  of  the 
world,  has  sent  forth  an  influence  that  still  widens  after  the 
lapse  of  eighteen  centuries — breathing  the  fire  of  heaven  into  the 
cold  and  gloomy  chambers  of  the  human  heart.  Pure  as  the  Spirit 
of  God,  and  reaching  up  to  the  empyrean  of  the  gods,  he  has 
opened  the  portals  of  that  bright  and  shining  world,  that  men  may 
look  aloft  and  see  the  glory  of  the  life  eternal.  With  heart  more 
tender  than  woman’s,  he  wept  over  the  sad  ruin  of  our  race,  and 
far  different  from  the  unfeeling  cruelty  of  men,  he  said  to  the  poor 
heart-broken  penitent,  trailing  in  the  dust  of  humiliation  and  shame, 
‘‘go  and  sin  no  more.”  0  !  what  a  sublime  example  of  every  Vir¬ 
tue!  and  how  grateful  does  the  heart  feel,  when  borne  down  with 
sorrow  under  the  wrongs  that  are  eating  up  the  earth,  and  after 
it  has  gone  in  vain  to  the  wise  men  of  every  age — how  grateful 
does  the  heart  feel,  when  it  finds  there  is  not  one  vice  that  is  not 
condemned,  and  not  one  virtue  that  is  not  exalted,  by  that  Jesus 
of  Nazareth — that  lone  and  peerless  One  I  What  fire  of  heaven 
in  that  law  of  the  Sexes,  by  him  first  published  under  the  sun — 
what  heights  and  depths  of  spiritual  truth  in  that  law — laying  the 
injunction  of  Purity  alike  upon  l^o/A  sexes, — and  without  which 
this  vast  human  heart  would  be  foul  as  the  sea  of  Sodom  and  Go- 
morroh.  But  the  men  of  this  world,  despising  the  voice  of  their 
own  hearts,  and  setting  their  faces  against  heaven,  have  laid 
the  whole  weight  of  the  law  upon  the  shoulders  of  Woman; — and 
that  sin  of  Incontinence,  which  has  peopled  the  grave  wdth  more 
victims  than  any  other,  and  w^orked  a  more  horrid  depth  of  ruin 
and  depravity,  passes  the  ordeal  of  Public  opinion  unscathed, 
and  wins  from  creeping  things  boasting  the  name  of  philosophy 


THIRD  ANNIVERSARY  ADDRESS 


llie  kindly  epilliet  of  “amiable  foible^'”  —  even  while  putrid 
death,  staring  from  its  leaden  sockets,  answers  back — “it  is  a 
Lie!”  And  so  of  «// the  evil  that  jesters  in  the  world’s  heart. 
Faintly  seen,  il’ seen  at  all  by  the  dim  light  of  philosophical  wis¬ 
dom,  it  lies  sprawling  in  all  its  huge  deformity,  when  dragged 
into  open  day  by  that  mightiest  Teacher.  And  thus  he  stands, 
speaking  over  the  dark  waste  of  human  life,  clothing  that  life  with 
Eternal  significance,  invoking  the  Authority  of  Heaven,  and  speak¬ 
ing  with  a  voice  that  will  reach  the  last  age  of  the  world.  Such 
in  a  historical  view  is  that  son  of  Joseph  the  carpenter. 

Here  then  is  the  great  Ideal,  the  living  reality,  and  more  than 
that,  of  the  soul’s  highest  conceptions  of  A  irtue  and  V  isdom — in 
all  the  wide  sea  of  time  the  only  one.  He  therefore  is  the  last 
hope  of  humanity, — for  the  heart  will  not  be  virtuous  without  carry¬ 
ing  in  its  own  recesses  a  noble  ideal  of  A'irtue  ;  and  here  is  the 
outward  Exemplar  of  that  ideal,  rising  like  a  })illar  of  light  to  the 
heavens — lair  and  beautiful  in  all  its  proportions.  Nor  should  it 
be  said  that  I  am  invading  the  province  of  Divinity  in  a  secular 
lecture.  It  would  be  as  absurd  to  discourse  upon  the  great  gene¬ 
ralities  of  liuman  life  without  notice  of  Jesus  Clirist,  as  it  would 
be  to  undertake  a  history  of  natural  science  and  astronomy  without 
reference  to  the  discoveries  of  Cuvier  or  Newton  The  s])irit  of 
that  Teacher  is  upon  the  world  :  it  is  blended  with  all  the  heights 
and  depths  of  the  human  heart,  and  you  can  no  more  regard  the 
one  without  the  other,  than  you  can  remove  the  law  of  gravita¬ 
tion  from  the  earth,  or  separate  the  grand  movements  of  the  uni¬ 
verse  from  the  sustaining  power  oj  God. 

Rut  the  point  I  am  gaining,  is  the  authority  of  that  wonderful 
Teacher;  his  autliority  as  a  rule  of  opinion  and  life;  sustained  as  it 
is,  by  every  authority  worthy  of  the  name  in  the  Universe.  He 
has  brouf»-ht  in  to  our  world  a  torch  that  shines  over  the  wide  ocean  of 

o 

Eternity,  and  illuminates  the  whole  of  that  immense  void  between 
the  throne  of  God  and  the  lowest  deep  of  the  infernal  waste.  And 
by  that  ereat  light,  and  through  that  vast  medium,  we  are  enabled 
to  gather  an  impression  of  the  overwhelming  importance  and  earn¬ 
estness  of  human  life.  AVe  leel  the  spirit  of  Immensity  upon  our 
hearts,  and  rise  above  that  cumbrous  load  of  lies,  sins,  and  fleeting 
follies  that  would  weigh  us  down  to  the  earth.  AVc  read  the  sig- 


•  Gibbon,  in  various  parts  of  his  history  of  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  remarks  to  this  effect. 


OF  THE  PLATON.  LIT.  SOCIETY 


nificance  of  vice  in  the  mutilation  of  its  victims  around  us,  and  see 
it  o-ather  fresh  lioirors  when  reflected  back  from  its  native  seats 
of  darkness.  We  feel  an  obligation  to  advance  forward  to  the  line 
of  Duty — assured  that,  if  we  halt,  stagger  or  retreat  from  the 
ranks,  we  shall  have  the  weight  of  the  Universe  upon  our  shoul¬ 
ders  at  last. 

This  great  hight,  young  gentlemen,  rising  far  above  the  base 
level  cf  current  opinion  and  sentiment,  it  should  be  the  labor  of 
your  lives  to  reach  and  maintain;  and  unless  you  reach  it,  your  ideas 
of  human  life  will  be  as  worthless  as  the  speculations  of  a  mole  upon 
the  geography  of  the  earth.  When  you  shall  go  hence  into  the 
world,  the  only  hope  of  your  value  depends  upon  your  carrying 
with  you  that  noble  grandeur  of  thought  and  feeling,  that  deep  and 
earnest  devotion  to  virtue,  wliich  will  enable  you  to  stand  up, 
though  solitary  and  alone,  and  breast  the  waves  of  falsehood  and 
corruption  that  are  sweeping  over  the  earth  in  proud  and  defiant 
strength.  As  scholars,  you  will  see  how  incompatible  with  this 
moving  earnestness,  are  all  tiie  airs  and  ccmplaicent  conceits  of 
pedantry.  Let  not  your  language  be  ol‘  Latium  and  Ilion,  of 
Helicon  and  Parnassus;  stop  not  to  sport  with  the  muses  in  the 
groves  of  Arcadia,  or  to  weave  garlands  of  taste  in  the  schools  cl 
heathen  philosophy;  but  rather,  with  the  fire  of  the  New  Revelaticui 
in  your  hearts,  with  an  awful  sense  of  your  position  in  the  Uni¬ 
verse,  with  the  eternal  ages  before  you  and  behind  you, with  heaven 
over  your  heads  and  hell  beneath  your  feet,  go  out  among  the  mil¬ 
lions  that  lie  weltering  in  the  stygean  seas  of  life,  and  speak  with 
a  speech  that  will  not  shame  the  high  and  terrible  import  of  the 
scene.  Call  with  a  voice  that  will  reach  the  ears  of  the  dead, 
and  break  the  nightmare  of  the  sleeper!  Oh,  there  is  no 
time  for  piping  the  songs  of  peace  when  the  blasts  of  war  are 
howling  in  the  heavens  !  There  is  no  time  lor  the  timbrel  and  harp, 
no  time  for  repose  in  the  bowers  of  ease,  when  the  rage  and  fury 
of  battle  tliicken  over  the  face  ot  the  world ! — None  the  less  a 
battle,  O  Cod  !  none  the  less  a  battle,  because  every  land  under 
lieaven  is  the  scene  of  the  conflict;  because  the  artillery  of  hell  and 
the  swift-winged  legions  of  darkness  dispute  the  field  ;  because 
those  who  are  cloven  down  in  the  strife,  leave  not  their  blood  to 
fatten  the  soil,  nor  their  bodies  to  feed  the  fowls  of  the  air!  There 
is  a  death  that  sinks  deeper  than  the  grave;  and  there  is  a  murder 
that  is  more  dreadful  than  the  carnage  of  a  tliousand  fields.  It  is 
the  death  which  puts  out  every  light  of  tlie  immortal  soul!  It  is 


THIRD  ANNIVERSARY  ADDRESS 


ri4 

tlie  murder  which  turns  the  heavens  into  iron,  and  the  heart  into 
ashes  !  I  have  seen  the  ravages  of  that  death  and  that  murder;  and 
O  !  by  all  that  is  terrible  intlie  wild  and  throbbing  depths  of  human 
woe,  I  have  marvelled  at  the  maniac  laugh  and  stolid  indifference 
with  which  men  have  regarded  them.  And  the  agencies  producing 
that  ruin  are  in  the  full  tide  of  vigorous  action.  Like  flax 
before  the  flames  of  a  devouring  fire,  the  virtue  and  happiness  of 
our  race  are  being  swept  down  beneath  that  all-deluging  flood  of 
iniquity,  which,  for  some  inscrutable  reason,  has  been  permitted  to 
escape  from  the  prison  doors  of  darkness  and  death.  And  in  view 
of  this  tremendous  fact,  as  compared  with  the  frivolous  shallowness 
of  the  great  mass  of  mankind,  and  their  stupid  insensibility  to  right 
and  wrong,  we  are  forced  to  the  melancholy  conclusion,  that  they 
are  hardly  such  at  all,  but  rather  a  description  of  apes,  not  knowing 
what  manner  of  world  tliey  inhabit. 

Fortified  with  these  great  thoughts  and  deep  feelings,  you  will 
carry  an  atmosphere  of  spiritual  sublimity  round  your  hearts,  which 
will  constitute  you  a  foreign  element  in  the  world.  For  you  will 
feel  in  all  your  being,  a  necessity  to  divide  between  the  eternal 
True  and  the  eternal  False,  and  to  rest  your  soul’s  destiny  upon 
the  former  ;  knowing  that  the  minority  in  which  you  shall  stand, 
deplorable  as  it  may  be,  is  yet  the  seven  thousand  of  every  age  ; 
and  always  content  with  the  reflection,  that,  however  matters  may 
go  for  the  present,  you  will  be  sustained  by  the  power  of  Almighty 
God  in  the  end. 

You  will  find  that  the  pleasures  and  honors  you  now  anticipate 
so  confidently,  will  turn  out  like  the  forbidden  joys  in  the  myth  of 
Tantalus;  and  you  will  find  that  that  beautiful  ideal  of  purity  which 
YOU  now  carry  in  your  bosoms,  can  never  meet  with  its  realization 
among  the  fogs  and  moorlands  ot  this  dark  rolling  earth.  But  you 
will  see,  nevertheless,  that  it  has  the  noblest  of  uses,  for  it  is  a 
glowing  emblem  of  the  higher  life,  holy  and  spiritual  in  the  happy 
fields  of  eternal  day.  It  is  a  monitor  from  God,  ever  speak¬ 
ing  in  your  hearts,  and  telling  you  the  end  for  wliich  you  were 
made.  But  according  to  the  current  and  approved  wisdom  of  the 
times,  it  is  a  deadly  heresy  to  listen  to  that  sublime  and  seraphic 
voice,  and  public  opinion,  huge,ill-shapen  monster,  thunders  against 
it  with  her  tliousand  tongues.  You  will  hear  the  doctrine  of  con¬ 
formity  to  the  world  proclaimed  in  every  rank  of  society  ;  and  you 
will  see  it  bolstered  into  a  towering  popularity,  by  such  as  arc  as 
ready  with  a  kiss  for  the  feet  of  baseness,  as  they  are  with  a  sneer 


OF  THE  PLATON.  LIT.  SOCIETY. 


of  contempt  for  the  noblest  truths  of  God.  Yet  if  you  would  not 
sink  pernicious  depths  below  the  moral  level  you  now  occupy, 
abandon  not  the  ideal  of  your  hearts;  nor  humble  yourselves  before 
the  lies  and  sorceries  that  have  grown  great  by  the  blind  adulation 
of  mankind.  Your  personal  dignity,  your  eternal  happiness,  your 
allegiance  to  the  Maker  of  your  souls,  forbid  the  idolatry  !  And 
these  are  weightier  considerations  than  the  authority  of  a  thousand 
myriads  of  rooting  things,  and  the  shells  to  be  gained  by  rooting. 

Yes,  if  you  would  not  wholly  abandon  the  idea  of  being  any  ac¬ 
count  at  all,  you  must  divide  from  the  great  mass  of  the  world,  as 
oil  divides  from  water.  You  must  realize  that  the  work  which 
God  has  put  upon  jou,  is  simply  the  attainment  and  practice  of 
virtue,  and  not  the  pursuit  of  ambitious  and  selfish  objects,  such  as 
fame,  wealth  and  power.  And  you  must  have  a  standard  of  Truth, 
which  will  serve  as  a  criterion  of  judgment  tor  all  disputed  issues 
— and  that  standard  must  be  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Nature  of  Things; 
— not  the  voice  of  the  world  in  God’s  name,  though  it  speak 
with  authority  and  in  tones  of  thunder  ;  —  not  the  ocean 
of  books  that  have  come  down  to  us  in  the  great  drag-net 
of  time  —  confused  and  vast  medley  of  crudities  and  opinions, 
mixed  up  in  the  mire  of  falsehood  and  vice; — not  the  authority 
of  that  cloud  of  modern  critics,  who  have  darkened  the  face 
of  literature,  morality  and  religion  with  heathen  fulminations  in  a 
Christian  age,; — not  the  authority  of  the  Church,  as  we  now  see  it 
in  the  earth,  covered  over  and  festering  to  its  heart’s  core  with  cor¬ 
ruptions  as  it  is;  not  either  or  all  of  these  together — but  simply 
Jesus  Christ  and  the  Nature  of  Things. 

And  when  jou  have  risen  to  an  ample  conception  of  this  world, 
with  its  immense  and  real  significance,  as  compired  with  the  small 
and  miserable  notions  that  prevail,  you  will  be  fortified  with  an 
earnestness  that  will  lift  you  above  the  babbling  of  censure,  and 
urge  you  on  in  the  service  of  Truth,  however  despised  and  insult¬ 
ed.  And  your  hearts  will  glow  with  that  honest  love  lor  all 
your  fellow  beings,  which  will  make  it  impossible  for  you  to  look 
with  indifference  upon  anything  that  invades  their  rights,  or  tends 
to  degrade  their  character  and  injure  their  happiness.  This  all- 
boasted  civilization  of  the  day,  you  will  see  struggling  beneath  the 
incubus  of  an  overshadowing  materialism,  praised  and  deiended  by 
a  philosophy  tliat  finds  the  highest  realization  of  human  greatness 
in  railroads,  ocean  steamers,  lightning  telegraphs,  and  cotton 
gins.  You  will  stop,  therefore,  and  consider  awhile  before  you 


"WWUCAL 


THIRD  ANN.  ADD.  OF  THE  PLAT.  LIT.  SOC’Y. 

raise  your  voices  in  bombastic  adulation  to'  the  “age  of  progress.” 
You  will  see  luxury,  t'oul  corrupter  of  every  virtue,  growing  upon 
our  country;  and  you  will  find  dwarf  heads  and  dwarf  hearts,  made 
for  ignoble  uses  only,  scattered  thick  as  the  IVogs  of  Egypt.  You 
will  see  our  great  Eastern  cities  sitting  like  huge  baboons  on  the 
Atlantic  coast  aping  the  follies  of  Europe  ;  and  you  will  see  the , . 
intermediate  populations  dancing  in  chorus  to  tlie  banks  of  the 
Mississippi.  You  will  see  puny-visaged  and  brainless  aristocra¬ 
cy  curling  its  nose  at  that  Atlas  of  civilization — him  with  the  hard 
hand  and  sunburnt  face,  carrying  on  his  shoulders  the  whole  w'eight 
and  superstructure  of  civil  society,  and  without  whom  the  W'orld 
W’ould  go  back  to  savageism  at  once.  You  will  see  your  poor  sister 
woman,  delicate  and  tender  as  she  is,  made  to  bear  the  sins  ot 
the  whole  world. 

These  and  multitudes  of  like  absurdities  and  vices,  you  will  find 
lording  it  triumphantly  in  every  quarter.  But  yet  you  must  stand 
up  against  them — by  the  eternal  value  of  3'our  manhood,  by  your 
love  of  heaven,  and  your  fear  of  hell,  you  must  stand  up  against 
them ! 

Every  thing  we  see  around  usis  passing  away.  Even  the  so  called 
eternal  outlines  of  nature  bear  the  impress  of  mutation  and  decay. 
Yet  a  little  while,  and  you  will  lie  down  in  the  silence  of  death  ; 
and  then  the  wild  grass  shall  grow,  and  the  shows  of  winter  shall 
whiten,  and  the  loud  winds  of  heaven  shall  beat  over  your  forgot¬ 
ten  graves.  Virtue  alone  has  treasure  that  will  outlive  the  wreck 
of  this  temporal  world.  Oh  then  let  that  be  one  absorbing  motive 
of  your  hearts  !  A  motive  that  will  not  perish  like  the  fleeting  hour 
as  it  passes,  but  stand,  and  be  sanctified  by  an  approving  con¬ 
science,  when  this  earth  and  these  heavens  shall  fly  away  before 
the  face  of  God. 


